Question

I am writing a small web app that uses PHP code to email a phone number (the person with the phone number sees it as a text message, and not as an email of course). Every phone service has email to text. For example, Verizon in the US uses @vtext.com.

My problem is this, the FROM on the SMS always says “6245” which is apparently standard for SMS’s from the Verizon email domain (vtext.com). Can I change this in code with a more human readable From rather than this seemingly random number?

Here is my code using PHP mailer:

            $from = $_POST['email'];
            $from = filter_var($from, FILTER_SANITIZE_EMAIL);
            $message .= $guest . ' waiting at Office. Checked in at ';
            $message .= strftime("%l:%M %p (%A %b %e, %Y)", time());

            // PHP SMTP mail version

            $mail = new PHPMailer();

            $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE onduty = 1");

            $recipients = array();

            while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
                $recipients[] = $row['phone'] . $row['carrier'];

            }

            foreach ($recipients as $email) {
                $mail -> AddAddress($email);

            }

            $from_name = "Riverstone Notification";
            $subject = "Person in Office";

            $mail -> IsSMTP();
            $mail -> Host = "relay-hosting.secureserver.net";
            $mail -> Port = 25;
            $mail -> SMTPAuth = false;
            $mail -> Username = "EMAIL_USER";
            $mail -> Password = "EMAIL_PASS";
            $mail -> FromName = $from_name;
            $mail -> From = $from;
            $mail -> Subject = $subject;
            $mail -> Body = $message;

            $result = $mail -> Send();

Answer 1

No, when you’re using the Verizon’s service, that no. is going to be standard, because it comes from Verizon’s SMS gateway.
You would have to get a paid service, if you need flexibility on that.